TAMPA, Fla. – The Washburn volleyball team punched its ticket to the Final Four after a 3-1 win over West Texas A&M in the NCAA national quarterfinal match on Thursday afternoon. The Ichabods will face the No. 2-seed and No. 13-ranked Western Washington in the semifinal on Friday at 4 p.m. CT.
Friday's match will mark just the second time these two programs have faced each other and will be a rematch of the 2007 national semifinal. Western Washington came out on top, 3-1, on Nov. 30, 2007 in Topeka, Kan., to advance to the national championship match.
Washburn won by the set scores of 25-22, 25-19, 21-25, and 25-21 to improve its record to 30-5 on the year. West Texas A&M's season comes to a close with a mark of 26-5.
Prior to the match, senior libero
Faith Rottinghaus was named the NCAA Elite 90 award winner as she holds the highest GPA of any student-athlete in the NCAA National Tournament. She has a perfect 4.0 GPA in kinesiology.
Jalyn Stevenson started the match with a kill and then a service ace to get things going for the Ichabods. The Lady Buffs trailed 11-9 when they put together a 5-0 run to take their first lead of the set. Washburn responded with four unanswered points to reclaim the lead, 15-14. With the match knotted up at 16-all, the Ichabods went back in front with a 6-1 scoring run and benefited from five WT errors. The Lady Buffs rattled off four points in a row to pull within one, 22-21, but the Ichabods closed out the set winning three of the final four points in the frame with kills from three different players.
Washburn jumped out to a quick 3-0 advantage in the second game and never trailed. West Texas A&M leveled the score at 8-8 when
Sydney Fitzgibbons landed a kill to start an 8-2 scoring run. Kills from
Allison Maxwell and
Genna Berg closed out the 25-19 set win and put Washburn up 2-0 in the match.
The third frame was back-and-forth scoring with four ties until West Texas A&M used a 6-2 run to go in front, 16-12. With Washburn trailing 17-13, a Lady Buff attacking error started a run of five-consecutive points to put the Ichabods back on top, 18-17. WT continued its attack and ended the game on an 8-3 run, earning points on seven kills, to stay alive in the match.
After losing the opening point of the fourth set, Washburn captured the next three points and then took a 9-5 advantage after a 6-1 run. The Lady Buffs clawed their way back within one, 11-10, but Washburn extended its lead by winning five of the next six points. West Texas A&M made one final push to keep its season alive and made it a two point deficit at 23-21, but that would be as close as it got as Maxwell recorded her fifth and sixth kills of the set to secure the victory.
The Ichabods hit .263 in the match while the Lady Buffs finished with a .233 hitting percentage. Washburn led in kills, 61-55, and in aces, 4-2.
Maxwell led four Ichabods in double-figure kills with 16 kills and just two errors for a .452 hitting percentage. Berg contributed 14 kills and six digs.
Kelsey Gordon and Stevenson recorded 11 kills apiece and Stevenson also had 12 digs.
Sadler notched her 12th double-double of the season with 44 assists and 11 digs. Rottinghaus scooped up a team-best 28 digs and added four assists.
The Lady Buffs' Torrey Miller finished with a match-high 22 kills to go with 12 digs.
NOTES:
- The Ichabods will play in their third national semifinal match in program history; WU reached the Final Four in 2007 and 2018.
- Washburn has only played Western Washington once. WW defeated WU, 3-1, on Nov. 30, 2007 in the national semifinal.
- Western Washington swept Daemen in the quarterfinals today, 25-12, 25-16, and 25-19 to push its winning streak to 20 in a row and improve its record to 25-4.
- When playing as the No. 3 seed in the NCAA tournament, WU is 6-3.
- When playing against a No. 2 seed in the NCAA tournament, WU is 1-3.
